Ajackus

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the founder and CEO of a company creating MatchMe, which is the first truly social dating application.

What challenge were you trying to address with Ajackus?

They are our strategic engineering partners for the project. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

The work that they focused on essentially consisted of a complete refactor of our codebase. That included migrating from native iOS to React JavaScript. We have a professional designer creating the UI/UX of the application and they have translated

What is the team composition?

We started out partnering with just the three founders, and pretty quickly we were able to scale the team to include two core developers, a project lead, and a business strategist who operated as our project manager. From there we were able to add as many as four more developers for specific needs, especially leading up to our go to market.

How did you come to work with Ajackus?

They were referred to us by a contractor who had worked with us on the UI/UX of the application based on his work with them in the past. The way that they approached the relationship and agile project management methodology really sold us on working with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent a total of about $50,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

I believe the partnership started around January 2018 and is still ongoing.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

When we started, we had an exclusively native iOS app, and they helped us to transition to a platform-neutral positioning because they understood that the app needed to be usable for users across devices. Ultimately, that decision saved us significantly more money and time down the road.

That is just one example of the kind of strategic engineering advice that I can rely on them for. We are still struggling a little bit to find our product-market fit, but that’s by no means for lack of any effort on their end. They have been involved in our beta testing both locally in India and around the world and have about 700 monthly active users.

We have plans, as well as data points and user feedback to help guide another round of redesign on the UI/UX to help make the whole process a little bit more streamlined so that our users can actually derive the value from the app that is intended.

How did Ajackus perform from a project management standpoint?

Their team is excellent at communication and managing our progress on the project as a whole. We had weekly standups and scrum meetings when necessary, and are able to talk to them about anything that comes up whenever we need because of their consistent availability.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve worked with a number of different developers over the years and they are quite literally the best outsourced engineering firm I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. From the very beginning of our partnership, there was a sense of not only quality engineering advice and services, but a real strategic nature to their approach.

They understood that we are a bootstrapped startup and really made every effort to partner with me to make the relationship as cost-effective as possible as well as to make better product decisions based on what some of our legacy technology decisions had been. On top of that, they just fundamentally believe in the app and want us to succeed in a way that most partners do not.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There really is nothing that I can think of that they could be doing differently.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Working with any of the three co-founders on your project is going to be really helpful in establishing the relationship and helping to establish your strategy for your roadmap ahead.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of a mobile app company.

For what projects/services did your company hire Ajackus, and what were your goals?

We had previously had a tech team that had built our app but it had a lot of bugs in it and couldn't seem to get it working. There were also many, many communication issues too that led to delays in our app's initial launch. We hired Ajackus to find and fix existing bugs and make improvements to our app but communication was really important for us as well. Our goal was to have a app that functioned smoothly for our users and to improve the user experience.

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

I actually crossed paths with Nirmal Topwala, of Ajackus, on LinkedIn. We had a few Zoom meetings before we even began talking about hiring Ajackus. In those meetings, Nirmal gave us sound business and marketing advice. Some of our meetings were a little over a hour. He took the time and interest to get to know us as people as well.

I think the time spent on getting to know our mission, our previous misfortunes with our former tech team and us as people, I felt like Ajackus was investing in US and not looking at us as just "another job". It seemed to be more to them than that. Nirmal said that Ajackus could help us to achieve our goals.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

So to Ajackus' disadvantage, our app built by our former tech team was built using Ionic. But as our app became more than just a simple app, being on Ionic made it more unstable. Also, it appeared that our former tech team did the bare minimum and there were countless bugs in our app....so much so that you couldn't even operate the app past trying to login. 

So much of the work for them was finding these bugs and fixing them. Fixing some bugs created others and a lot of it had to do with the fact that the app should be rebuilt using a different program. Then additional goals were coming up with ways to improve the app for user retention and adding additional features for the app as well as the backend website.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

A project manager was assigned to our project to be our main contact but almost all meetings included that manager and VP of engineering. Sometimes, calls would include developers or QA. But there was a lot of people in the background working on testing and QA.

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Our app had been out for 6 months before we hired Ajackus and for those 6 months, we had issues after issues with the app functioning properly. Our main goal was to get it functioning properly and Ajackus accomplished that goal. But it wasn't easy for them. At one point, for a month, they were working endlessly (even on weekends) to find and resolve bugs. There were some bugs that were continuing to pop up so Ajackus began to think outside the box.

During this month, they pulled people in from all over the company to test out our app on numerous physical devices and got feedback from those testers who had never used our app before. It provided great outside perspectives for improvements to the app too. They put in tons of time during this month of testing, QA and compiling a list of improvements. We were extremely impressed with the lengths they went through to fix our app. In addition to fixing bugs, every month we'd find things that could be added or improved to help user experience. I believe every month, they finished the list of things before the month was up so timeliness was something Ajackus excelled at.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

As I said before, clear communication was something that was of the utmost importance going into working with Ajackus. Our project manager was ALWAYS available it seemed. I know there were times he was messaging us at 1 or 2am (local time). Ajackus used the program Slack to stay in communication with us as well as email. We had weekly meetings to go over what was achieved thus far and what was left, improvement ideas, etc.

As I said previously, they always were finished with deliverables before the end of the month was up. It was always surprising what all they could accomplish within a month's time because our former tech team could only handle a hand full of things a month.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Ajackus took our ideas and made them better. They definitely stood out in quality, dedication, communication but were just better PEOPLE to work with than our former tech team.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

If the team feels something should be changed just to run it by the client prior to changing.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the chief medical officer at a family general practitioner clinic. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Ajackus?

We needed to develop a mobile application for the clinic.  

What was the scope of their involvement?

Ajackus developed an iOS and Android app that integrated into our current electronic medical records and enabled our patients to access them. They also did a web version of the app. 

In order to develop the app, we gave Ajackus access to work with a demo version of our electronic medical records because we had to preserve our patients' confidentiality.  

They’re currently working on some enhancement features for us because we’re developing a second part of the app.

What is the team composition?

We’re five people from our team. Ajackus’ CTO allocates a team to work on our project. There are 3–5 people on their team, but I’ve only met with one. 

How did you come to work with Ajackus?

Ajackus was one of several recommendations given to us by our electronic medical record provider. We selected them because they were very responsive to our needs and understood what we required. They were also very professional from the start. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent 16,000 Singapore Dollars (approximately $12,000 USD).  

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working in October 2020, and it’s ongoing.  

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We’ve been able to access COVID-19 test reports within the app, which has enabled our patients to travel through international checkpoints. We’ve received positive feedback from our patients, who find the app to be very convenient.

I believe that about 200 out of 600 patients have signed up for the app. However, I can’t say with certainty. We’re a new company and are still trying to collect specific metrics.

How did Ajackus perform from a project management standpoint?

Ajackus communicates with us regularly through email and phone calls to give us updates on the progress of the project. They’re very clear with their timelines and expectations. They communicate clearly and in a non-technical manner so that we can understand, which is very helpful. 

They always make sure we are all aligned in the right time zone since they’re in India, and we’re in Singapore, which is very considerate of them.   

What did you find most impressive about them?

Ajackus is extremely responsive and considerate.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They're is a company I find very difficult to fault. They have offered feedback and are very clear at communicating.  

Any advice for potential customers?

I’ve already introduced Ajackus to another medical company, so I know exactly what to recommend. Go to Ajackus with an idea of what you want, and they will find a solution to it. However, if you go to them with clear parameters of what you’re trying to achieve, Ajackus will break it down and tell you what’s achievable within a specific time frame and at what cost.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm a member of the business development team for a safety-oriented medical organization. We are a not-for-profit public health organization funded by the UN. I work with a lot of industry partners, managing relationships with and using data from all of these industry partners.

What challenge were you trying to address with Ajackus?

Over time, our volume of data our company works with has increased. Up until now, we've been doing the entire data management process manually, which is inefficient and prone to errors. To overcome this, I decided that we had to build a data automation tool. I wanted the solution to function as an online platform for all of my industry partners to log in and release their data. We capture three different types of data, so they would leave their data on the platform and I would be able to review it and approve or reject it as needed. It would work like a customer relationship managing app that would automate the entire process of working with our partners, including sending email reminders.

What was the scope of their involvement?

When we signed the contract with them, we clearly defined our expectations for the project. We wanted to create a platform where our partners could log in and leave their data. Since the platform was designed for use by 20 different partners of ours, it incorporates three data formatting options to maintain uniformity. I don't have a technical background, so I can't dive too deeply into the specifics of the platform's construction.

I wanted the solution to operate seamlessly. The platform also needed to not allow the partners to enter wrong or incorrectly-formatted data–this was very important to us. I wanted the data to be compiled in the backend as well, as this was something that I was doing manually. Ideally, the data would be cleaned and set up properly without me intervening.

What is the team composition?

I have mainly interacted with two people. One is their Chief Business Officer. I've worked with him since the start of the engagement. We worked together in discussing the requirements and his firm's fit for the project. Once we had onboarded them and the project actually started, I interacted with Rahul (Engineering VP) who was the project manager for this project on their end. He was our main point of contact, and we had weekly meetings to understand how the project was being tested. I know there were also other people involved with the project, but we didn't interact with them one-on-one.

How did you come to work with Ajackus?

Once I understood what we wanted to achieve, we started looking for vendors who could provide the services necessary to create the platform. I had never heard of them before this process, but we included them in our selection process after seeing that they could potentially offer what we needed.

We created an internal scoring mechanism to rank vendors based on factors including the quality of their ideas, their past products, their reputation, their price, and their location. Location, in particular, was an important factor to us. We're based in India, so I needed a company that could work directly with me on the project. We had some proposals from the US and Europe, but because of the time difference it wasn't feasible. Ajackus turned out to be the highest scoring company we evaluated, so we decided to work with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $10,000 with them. The work was broken up into two projects. We spent $7,500 on the first and between $3,000–$3,500 on the second.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from September–November 2020.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We didn't use any metrics to track their progress. In terms of qualitative aspects, though, we were able to gauge the efficiency of the tool during the period in which we transitioned to using it. As we got the platform up and running, the number of problems or errors detected in the data decreased. We don't really have other engagements to compare with this one, but I've been happy with the results. The solution they delivered works well.

How did Ajackus perform from a project management standpoint?

During the project, we communicated regularly. We had a weekly call where they'd provide an overview of their progress. If required, we would have more than one call like this so we could discuss any critical issues. Outside of these calls, I was in touch with them often.

We had divided the entire project into various small steps. At each step, we would identify what needed to be done, and then their team did it. We had a lot of live demos going on, which helped facilitate back-and-forth communication and constant feedback. If there was a problem, we would discuss it and come up with solutions. That was important, as it let me know that we were heading in the proper direction. Whenever there was some sort of feedback about something that was not working the way it should, the Ajackus team was proactive in addressing it. Even now that the project is completed and the tool is working, they're willing to help out with any small fixes as needed. There has never been a delay of more than a week in resolving these issues.

They really believe in the project timelines. They worked efficiently to complete the project and met all deadlines. Even though we ran into some roadblocks, they found solutions for them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're a young company with a great work ethic. Their team is very prompt in delivering solutions and responding to inquiries. They wouldn't leave me in the lurch if I was having an issue, either. They'll explore any problems thoroughly. They met all the project requirements. I enjoyed working with them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Based on my experience, their testing process could use some work. During our internal testing, we uncovered a lot of issues that should have been detected earlier and dealt with on their end. The bugs we found shouldn't have made it to us as the client. We communicated this to them.

Any advice for potential customers?

Be very clear about the requirements. Establishing them before the start of the project will help ensure you achieve what you want to achieve. Apart from that, I would also note that they are a very cost-effective organization with expertise in many different fields.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the COO of WAI - a provider of cognition enhancement solutions and behavioral assessment software to companies and consultants across India, Australia, and the US.

For what projects/services did your company hire Ajackus, and what were your goals?

We hired Ajackus for a customized web app development. The goal was to build a system that helps us on-board entities, build a way to automate pattern detection in the images for the purpose of personality assessment, and have a dashboard to get an insight on the day to day operations.

How did you select Ajackus and what were the deciding factors?

Ajackus was referred to us by a friend about a year before we started working on the project together. We had spoken to multiple freelancers and companies before choosing to go ahead with our product development with Ajackus.

The major deciding factors to proceed with Ajackus were technical knowledge, attitude to find the best fit solution, project management processes, and cost-effectiveness.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

Scope of work:

• Develop a proprietary algorithm that identifies the type of thumbprint through comparison and machine learning
• Prepare a report and send it to the partner entity while capturing user consent online
• Store the data on the cloud through secured measures
• Develop a way to capture the thumbprint of the end-user
• Develop a customized dashboard for Admins and Partners to provide a snippet of the information
• Provide online payment options to the entities to collect payments Project steps
• Requirement gathering and preparation of a PRD
• Planning phase that also included suggestions, and recommendations - Estimates on the timeline
• Development and QA
• Feedback and fixes

Key deliverables:

• A web app with multiple roles
• Personalized subdomain for partner entities
• Proprietary algorithm to identify the patterns through images
• A secured system to capture the data
• Robust architecture for future enhancements

Technologies used:

• ReactJS for Frontend
• Python for Backend
• PostgreSQL for Database
• AWS for Hosting and Storage

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We were assigned 3 dedicated developers and a QA for the project. However, 2 members from the leadership were constantly supporting and monitoring the progress.

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

The successful completion of the project has helped us save nearly 40% of our time which was earlier spent on manual processes. Automation has made our system widely scalable. We can track our entire system and its progress under a single dashboard.

Our system has become simple and easy to adapt to our customers. The base for the future enhancement is created and was covered while designing the architecture, this has made it easy for us to have quick checks on new features.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timelines.

The project management was strategic and inclusive. There was tight communication maintained throughout with weekly updates via email and hangout calls. We were also introduced to tools like Trello and Airtable that helped us stay aligned and effectively track progress.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

The support, guidance, work ethic, and genuine intent to help differentiate them from all the other companies that we have come across. I can confidently say that we are not just dealing with a company here but, a group of people that equally care about the success of their client's business. We are proceeding with Ajackus for all the next phases in our technical roadmap.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Apart from the success of our project, we have personally and professionally learned a lot from the entire team. They are on the right track!

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and director of Smeltt, a home care and fragrances company selling through our website and other marketplaces. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Ajackus?

When we planned to launch our website, we wanted to partner with a team that understood technology and could help us develop a great UX design. The team shouldn’t be limited to what e-commerce platforms offered. In other words, we needed a partner that could customize things for our needs. Moreover, since we were a startup, we didn’t want an in-house team. Rather, we needed flexibility and technical expertise, and that was where Ajackus helped us. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

Ajackus developed our website and created custom apps for us to address certain issues relating to the design of the whole product purchase process. The partnership started with website development. However, we realized over time that we needed more features, so they offered custom solutions to us.

At present, we still work with Ajackus. Our website is based on Shopify, and the team provides us with the functionality that we need to maintain it. For core features, they’ve created a product recommendation engine to help our customers decide on the fragrance they like. The key deliverable here is a product recommendation quiz, where users answer questions guiding our recommendations to them. 

Moreover, Ajackus has set up a chatbot for us, and they’ve handled our email marketing strategies. Their resources have also optimized our SEO and SEM campaigns. On top of that, they’ve been involved in our brand collaborations, where we offer coupons to customers for other brands. When an individual purchases from our website, we give them such coupons. 

What is the team composition?

We work with a project manager, a developer, and a QA engineer. Depending on a specific project’s requirements, they also sometimes assign a couple of additional engineers to us. 

How did you come to work with Ajackus?

We used to work with another company that was in the same co-working space as Ajackus, and that was how I knew about them. We realized early on that the other company wasn't a good fit for us in terms of costs and time limitations. 

When Ajackus came, we knew they were the better team; I also knew about the technical expertise of their founder. When they gave us free consultation on what we were doing and what we wanted to see, we knew they had the right vision for us. The cost factor was also a plus point; their services were 60%–70% cheaper than what we’d spend if we built our own in-house team. As a result, it made sense for us to engage and hire them. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested between $20,000–$25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October 2020, and the engagement is ongoing. 

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

Based on Shopify insights, we’ve achieved higher conversion rates. In fact, we’re in the top 3% of Shopify sites in terms of conversions versus other brands that have launched in the same week as us. In terms of brand awareness, we have about 10,000 monthly visitors. For a brand that only launched this year, these are good numbers, especially since we’re a home fragrance brand. Within the home and decor categories, one doesn’t easily get this rate of traffic or conversion. 

Meanwhile, the Ajackus team is highly involved in the relationship. For instance, they immediately tell us if certain features don’t make sense. Apart from that, they’ve developed features exactly the way we want them to, and they’ve saved us a lot of time.  

How did Ajackus perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management is good. We have weekly standups that are driven by Ajackus. Our designer interfaces with them, though I also sometimes join the calls. Their team has streamlined the process; we haven’t seen this level of organization in our previous partners.

Moreover, their resources have a systemic approval process. They take ownership of our brand, and we consider them as an extension of our team at this point. Overall, the engagement is smooth, and I don’t have any complaints about them. To communicate, we use Slack and Google Meet.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their proactiveness stands out to me. If they see a problem, they always try to solve it rather than wait for us to discover it. Likewise, their communication is impressive; they take it quite seriously, which is good for us because we learn from them.

Moreover, they don’t shy away from customizing products to give us what we want. Simply put, Ajackus doesn’t only help us execute based on our requirements; they also help us find the right way to go about our projects. I truly appreciate this because we don’t have great technical expertise within our firm. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

It would be good if they also have a technical lead or manager that can further streamline the engagement. This isn’t a big issue, however. 

Please describe your company and your position there.

STB is the world’s most comprehensive B2B solution for traveler health and safety measures and traveler experience initiatives announced by suppliers which influences traveler decisions in the new normal. As the COO, my mandate is to oversee the operations of the company.

For what projects/services did your company hire Ajackus?

We needed tech support to build the data platform that could host our curated data and provide seamless API feed to travel suppliers and intermediaries.

What were your goals for this project?

The goal was to provide accurate and real-time information to travelers in the new normal so as to ensure stress-free travel planning and a safer travel experience.

How did you select Ajackus?

We and Ajackus had our offices at the same co-working space and had known Maulik Begali for few years, so the discovery was relatively easier. We explored a couple more tech providers before on-boarding Ajackus.

Describe the project in detail.

The first few weeks were invested in discovery meetings to better understand and align our goals and objectives. The team came up with a database design, which was implemented to facilitate quick migration from excel files. An intuitive backend was provided to the content and QA team to access, update and check the content. The GraphQL API enabled the customized piping of this content to travel partners.

What was the team composition?

We had project managers working on either side, which facilitated effective communication between the tech team - designers, developers, and testers - and the content team.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

A state-of-the-art, customizable API that could be plugged into any existing tech platforms of any travel suppliers/intermediary. Besides the API, the Ajackus team built an intelligence engine to power the benchmarking tool that assessed various travel suppliers such as airlines, airports, and car rental/ride-hailing services on the initiatives taken by them around COVID-19 health and safety protocols.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The project managers had daily sync-ups over the phone and Microsoft teams platforms.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The flexibility shown by the team to accommodate change requests.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We believe the output was timely and of good quality. 

Safe Travel Barometer is a travel technology company. I’m its co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer, overseeing product development and its potential implementation with our partners.

We wanted a partner who could not only understand the basic principles of our vision, but also execute rapidly upon scale. Within months, Safe Travel Barometer grew from a content aggregation platform to having an API to dispense this information to clients and partners. The platform is exhaustive, supports hierarchy and depth across more than 2,000 suppliers, 100+ initiatives, and 150+ countries. Moreover, the constant evolution of the travel industry required us to be agile in evolving - and shifting direction of - our product. Ajackus was every thing we could have asked for!

How did you select Ajackus and what were the deciding factors?

Ajackus had a validated track record, and we knew of them via common references.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

Upon getting to know them intimately and discussing our project - Ajackus understood the industry nuances and initiated a game plan for a solution.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Ajackus' team was led by its founder. The anchor to our progress has been daily stand-ups between core representatives from both sides. This enabled us to communicate, discuss specifics and collaborate to execute efficiently.

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

We pretty much had a milestone every week or two. Be it the backend infrastructure, database schema, GraphQL API enablement, dashboard visualization.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timelines.

As mentioned above, the daily stand-ups with core representatives from both sides, coupled with tools such as messaging, Trello, enabled us to create transparency and made us aware of milestones.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Ajackus' existing understanding of the travel industry coupled with its strength in scaling technology teams as required, is its strong suit.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Buildly is a cloud native Software Architecture as a Service company, we focus on building new native apps and migrating legacy apps to our fast build and learn platform. I am CEO and co-founder of Buildly.

For what projects/services did your company hire Ajackus, and what were your goals?

We hired Ajackus to supplement our existing team and help us scale 2 existing and 1 new project for US based customers.

How did you select Ajackus and what were the deciding factors?

We found Ajackus through internal networks, we found the team to be extremely professional in our initial conversations and well versed in the technologies we were using and planned to implement. They also had a very cheerful attitude about the work and working as a team as well as a refreshing and efficient approach to communication and team coordination.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

Yeah I'm not going to do that, other then to say that the projects we built our based on open source technologies and can be found in GitHub under the buildlyio organization. If you looking to hire a team that understand process, open source, efficiencies in software development and has an almost unending bench of talent, then you should hire Ajackus.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

4 software developers and 1 manager.

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Again, just hire then you will be glad you did. Overall they have a diverse set of skills and processes to fit almost any development needs i can imagine.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timelines.

We dictated most of the styles of communication once the project started and they were familiar with all of them.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

The diverse team, the skills sets that seems to stretch beyond anything I could need and the attitude across the board was enthusiasm and cooperation.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

I would have hired then sooner and not hired the original agency I went with for the first project.